I have no official role in any campaign to support California Assembly Bill 52, which would give the State Insurance Commissioner the ability to block unreasonable hikes in premiums for health care insurance; like nyceve, jpmassar, and others who have been active here on the issue, whatever position I have is self-appointed.
So, I have no "right," per se, to do what I am about to do. I am going to call an audible.
I am concerned -- and Commissioner Dave Jones is concerned, and Assemblyman Mark Feuer is concerned, and my fellow bloggers are concerned -- that AB 52 is going to be gutted by amendments today. There may be a bill called AB 52 by the end of the day and it may appear to give the Insurance Commissioner (or perhaps others?) some additional powers to act to rein in costs of health insurance, but it may not do what needs to be done:
Give the State Insurance Commissioner the ability to block unreasonable hikes in premiums for health care insurance!
Either the fix is in -- or it isn't. If watering down AB 52 is a done deal, we're not going to make things any worse. If it's not a done deal, then we had better act powerfully, act quickly, and act massively. We need an "overreaction." Your tool is at this link.
I am no longer asking people to call Senate Health Committee Chair Dr. Ed Hernandez and the five other Democrats on the committee: co-authors Sens. DeSaulnier and Wolk and Sens. Alquist, DeLeon, and Rubio -- although those are the first six calls I'd like you to make.
Now, I'm asking you to call everybody. Call every last Democratic State Senator. The insurance companies and their allies -- apparently hospitals, and I've gotten the sinking feeling that it's doctors as well, in other words, those who get paid by insurance -- want to slip this change quietly. That's not in our interest. So: let's make a bunch of noise.
At 8:00 today, I published a small labor of love: a List of All CA Senate Dems' Contact Info. That's right: it's one-stop shopping for calling all 25 Democratic State Senators, from whom we want at least 20 "Yea" votes on AB 52.
Go down that list. Call everyone. Especially call the State Senators closest to you. If they ask why you're calling them, when they aren't even on the Health Committee, tell them this:
I want your help in sending a message to the members of the Health Committee: we want AB 52 passed, and we want it strong rather than hobbled by amendments.
This measure has been passed before -- and vetoed. The only reason not to pass it again now, in strong form, is because this time it could actually go into effect. Is that the message that the Democratic Party wants to send to the citizens, and particularly the activists, of California?
We're watching them today. We're watching them really closely.
Give them a call -- give their colleagues a call -- and let them know that.
Our opponents, who want to suck the savings out of all the wallets in California, are already doing so.
Thu Jul 07, 2011 at 4:43 PM PT: Passed -- unamended but limping.